. Joe stands in an
easy, careless attitude. He seems ignorant of danger. He has taken a
coal from the fire and slowly, deliberately, with back to the menace,
he lights his pipe. Then suddenly he drops it from his teeth. He leaps
to action. He draws his knife--two knives, one for each hand. He kicks
away a chair, for room. He drives the pirates across the cabin. The
candle--all the mugs upon the table--rattle to the stones. He cries
out with bravado._)

JOE: Who offers me his carcass first? What! Is pirate blood so thin
and white?

(_The pirates stand with knives drawn. It is an awkward moment of
social precedence._)

PATCH: (_safe in the farthest corner_). It 's me patch, Captain. It 's
fetched loose. I follers yer.

JOE: Come, Duke, and take your answer! Have you no stomach for my
message? 'Fore God, is there no black ram to lead his sheep to the
shearing?

(_Joe's is a dangerous gayety. His two knives glisten in the candle
light._)

PATCH: Scrape him with yer hook, Captain, I follers yer.

JOE: My knife frets. It is thirsty for thick red wine. Who offers me
his cask to tap? I 'll pledge the King, although it is a dirty
vintage. Come, Captain, I 'll carve you to a dainty morsel. We 'll
have fresh meat for the platter. You 'll not be known from scared
rabbit-flesh.

(_He drives them around the table. Patch takes refuge behind the door.
Darlin's red stockings run up the ladder._)

JOE: You bearded hound!

PATCH: He 's tauntin' yer, Captain. Hand him the hook! The Duke and me
is back o' yer.

JOE: Do you fear to cheat the gibbet on Wapping wharf? A knife 's a
sweeter end. Who comes first? I 'll help him across the Styx. Or sink
or swim! Flint waits in hell for three whelps to join his crew.

PATCH: Captain, I 'm 'sprized at yer good nater. Scrape him one!

JOE: Who comes to the barber first? Cowards! I 'll ram your pigtails
down your throats. I 'll wash your dirt in blood.

(_The Duke proves to be the strategist. He has edged to the rear of
the cabin. He circles behind Red Joe. And now in a flash he leaps on
him. Joe is buried under the three pirates, for Patch's valor returns
when Joe is down. Joe is tied with ropes and fastened to an upright at
the chimneyside. This is the terrible, glorious moment, now that the
fight is over, when the actor-manager, as I first read the play--as
explained in the preface (you really must read the preface)--turned
his excited somersault down the carpet._)

PATCH: Did